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Federal Government has applauded various International donors drawn from 14 countries who pledged over $672 million at the just concluded Humanitarian Conference on Nigeria and Lake Chad region, held in Oslo Norway.
The Conference co-hosted by Nigeria, Norway and Germany had sought for $1 billion emergency funding to prevent a famine in Lake Chad region and North-East of Nigeria.
While expressing delight over the development, Yakubu Dogara, Speaker of the House of Representatives, assured that International Community to set up solid and permanent legal framework to manage the resources donated or contributed for the development of the North East.”
Dogara who hailed from Bauchi State, one of the North-East State, also called for the convocation of a bigger Donor Summit that will see to the rebuilding and rehabilitation of the region.
“On our part, as a Legislature and Government, we owe a duty to the International Community to set up solid and permanent legal framework to manage the resources donated or contributed for the development of the North East.
“The food crisis summit was convened to fashion ways to stump up funds to prevent a food crisis in the North-East Nigeria, thereby preventing a re-occurrence of the famine in the Sudan.
The event – hosted by the Norwegian, Nigerian and German governments and the UN – will bolster relief efforts in the next three years,” he observed.
Dogara specifically showered encomium on the host country, Norway, which pledged $192 million of the $672 million promised by international donors for the next three years.
According to him, the organisers said further contributions are expected later this year from the United States and United Kingdom.
“While this year’s global humanitarian appeal for Nigeria – at present 1.8% funded – is at an early stage, last year’s appeal is only a little more than 50% funded. The UN and humanitarian agencies say $1.5 billion is needed to cater for about five million people,” Dogara said in a statement obtained by BusinessDay.
Geoffrey Onyeama, Minister of Foreign Affairs had in a statement issued in Abuja by his Special Assistant on Media, expressed Nigeria’s utmost gratitude to the donors stressing that no donation would be taken for granted.
He said the sheer magnitude of the humanitarian crisis which cuts across Nigeria and countries contiguous to the Lake Chad area was one of the largest and gravest humanitarian crises in the world.
The minister said the gesture came at a time Nigeria was experiencing fiscal constraints as the economy has plunged into a recession in the midst of costly military operation against Boko Haram.
“In Nigeria alone, 26 million people have been affected by the Boko Haram insurgency and 10.7 million people have been identified by the 2017 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) as needing life-saving assistance.
“The root causes of the crises including poverty, underdevelopment and high population pressure must be addressed,” he said.
The UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, Stephen O’Brien in a related report said the summit’s host country, Norway, led efforts by pledging 192 million of the 672 million promised by international donors.
O’Brien said further contributions were still expected later this year from the UK and the U.S. while two other unnamed countries ndicated they would pledge substantial contributions.
Deputy Director of USAID’s Office of Food for Peace Programme, Matthew Nims, at the conference said the threat of famine in Nigeria was greater than ever.
“A lot of us in this business knew this was coming. We could see this and I think we the governments in the region, those around the table here need to accept that there was a failure on all our parts to see where we have come to.
“All of us know that it’s also not the only country. If you look at 2017 it may be the great year of transition on many levels, but we don’t want it to be the year when famine becomes a more commonplace word. We are in unprecedented times of food insecurity,” Nims said.
